AIG Executive Jake DeSantis Resigns, Says Liddy Betrayed FP Unit

Ieva M. AugstumsAssociated Press

An AIG executive who received a retention bonus worth more than $742,000 after taxes has resigned publicly — in an Op-Ed column in The New York Times.

Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president at AIG's Financial Products division in Wilton said Wednesday that he's leaving the company and will donate his entire bonus to charity. The letter, addressed to AIG's CEO, Edward Liddy, and sent Tuesday criticized Liddy for, among other things, agreeing to the payments but then calling the bonuses "distasteful" as he testified before Congress.

"We in the financial products unit have been betrayed by AIG and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials," wrote DeSantis, who was head of business development for commodities. "In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn."

He added: "I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to AIG. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so."

DeSantis said he is disappointed and frustrated over what he called Liddy's lack of support.

"I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our payments," DeSantis wrote in the letter.

New York-based AIG has been heavily criticized by government officials and the public for awarding $165 million in bonuses earlier this month. The bonuses, designed to keep valued employees from quitting, were paid out regardless of performance.

The bonuses were given to employees of the Financial Products division, a global unit that issued derivatives called credit default swaps that helped sink AIG as a whole last year.

"Ed deeply appreciates the frustration expressed in this letter and believes that the recent vilification and harassment of AIG employees is grossly unfair and unwarranted," wrote AIG spokesman Mark Herr in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.